


for now, they are forever

by spheeris1



Category: Orange is the New Black
Genre: Acceptance, F/F, Introspection, Love, post-s2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-11
Updated: 2014-06-11
Packaged: 2018-02-04 05:49:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1767790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spheeris1/pseuds/spheeris1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>drabble // Piper POV // post-S2 // "It's just Piper and Alex, after all. It's just how it's always been."</p>
            </blockquote>





	for now, they are forever

~ ~

Piper doesn't look directly, choosing to keep her gaze moving; a rolling sort of stare, sliding from the meaningless all the way to that which holds meaning and then away again.

First the ceiling.  
Then Nicky's face.  
Her own calloused fingers, the corners of half-walls, a CO behind the glass...

...and finally, Piper's eyes land on Alex.

There they hold – just for a breath, missed by everyone – and then it is over and Piper is back to the ceiling, back to Nicky's face, back to fingers and walls and glass.

Around the fifth time, though, Alex looks right back at her and those familiar lips lift in the smallest of grins, as if the woman knows that this is only the beginning of whatever it is they are doing, the beginning again, the re-do of a million mistakes.

And Piper goes back to the ceiling, fighting off all that is building up beneath her ribcage – a heady combination of affection and annoyance, of love and wickedness – but the cracked plaster above her head knows the truth.

It catches that smile of hers all the same.

/ /

They sit side by side, not saying much, and they haven't talked about escape plans being thwarted and they haven't talked about all the pushing and pulling that they do with one another.

But Alex's shoulder is touching Piper's – a light heat, solid and sure – and neither one of them make to move, so they stay just like that until the world wakes up around them once more and the book cart rattles on the row opposite and boots shuffle along the carpet and Sister Ingalls 'shhh's someone and Piper looks over just in time to see Alex roll her eyes in silent amusement.

 _It would be nice to kiss you right now_ , that's what slithers through Piper's mind.

And Alex, with or without knowing, leans a bit more onto Piper's shoulder, sighing into the pages as she returns to reading, and Piper swears that she could write an entire novel about the two of them; chapter and verse with the tragedy of youth, this lust unable to be contained, this waltz called Chapman and Vause.

_It would be nice to stop dancing._

And Piper thinks that that would make a great first line.

/ /

Piper tried so hard to carve Alex out of her life – she got on a plane, she ignored the sorrow, she met a man and she swore to marry him. And Piper tried to tell herself that this was progress, that this was the way to start over – soaps and sweetness and safety.

Piper tried and tried and tried.

But Alex is laughing about something, caught in the sunlight like the fluttering of wings, and Piper feels all the empty spaces filling up again, swimming deep in emotion and memories and sensations, drowning, that's what she is doing, she is drowning in Alex and it isn't terrifying anymore.

It's just Piper and Alex, after all.

It's just how it's always been.

/ /

Piper lowers her fists when she presses her lips to the side of Alex's head and whatever round they were in is forgotten and they'll pick up this battle later – that's inevitable, too – but for now... 

...for now, they are warmth and whispers and acceptance; for now, they are not spinning, they are simply together – Alex's palm against her cheek, a kiss ghosting along the edges of her mouth – and for now, they are forever.

And now is all that matters.

/ /

**(end)**


End file.
